Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran
Background: Determining the inequality in health and the gap level among various socio-economic groups and factors affecting it were always concerns of most politicians and social scientists. This study investigated inequality in utilization of health care among Yazd residents in 2014. Methods: This...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences
2017-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jebhpme.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-26-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 |
| _version_ | 1818304750039334912 |
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| author | Najmeh Baghian Elham Tayefi Mohammad Ranjbar Adel Eftekhari |
| author_facet | Najmeh Baghian Elham Tayefi Mohammad Ranjbar Adel Eftekhari |
| author_sort | Najmeh Baghian |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Determining the inequality in health and the gap level among various socio-economic groups and factors affecting it were always concerns of most politicians and social scientists. This study investigated inequality in utilization of health care among Yazd residents in 2014.
Methods: This analytic and cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. The participants were all households of Yazd. The data were collected through a three-part questionnaire including demographic factors, socio-economic factors, and utilization of health services. The number of samples was estimated to be 1037 households selected by random stratified sampling. After administrating the questionnaire in the form of interview, data were entered into the SPSS software. Later, factor analysis method was carried out and participants were categorized based on their social and economical status. Afterwards, using the logistic regression method, the correlation among variables was calculated and finally, for measuring the concentration index, the stratified data were fed into Stata11 software version 12/SE and analyzed.
Results: According to the findings, there was no meaningful inequality in the distribution of contagious and non-contagious decreases in the population under study. Inequality in utilization of services for inpatient and outpatients during the past 6 months in the five socio-economic groups was significant (P-value = 0.000). This shows that accumulation of visits occurred in richer groups of society. Also, it can be claimed that self-treatment has greater accumulation in the poorer quintiles (CI = -0.09).
Conclusion: Inequality in benefitting from health services reflects the economical situation of households. As a result, it is expected that by taking steps to improve the living conditions, the equity in service utilization will be increased.
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| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T06:15:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-448f55aa803e4c41bdbebecbdc66ba9e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2538-5070 2538-4716 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T06:15:39Z |
| publishDate | 2017-02-01 |
| publisher | Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics |
| spelling | doaj.art-448f55aa803e4c41bdbebecbdc66ba9e2022-12-21T23:56:59ZengShahid Sadoughi University of Medical SciencesJournal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics2538-50702538-47162017-02-011117Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, IranNajmeh Baghian0Elham Tayefi1Mohammad Ranjbar2Adel Eftekhari3 Health Policy Research Center, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran Department of Health care Management, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran Department of Health care Management, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran Department of Health Economics, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Background: Determining the inequality in health and the gap level among various socio-economic groups and factors affecting it were always concerns of most politicians and social scientists. This study investigated inequality in utilization of health care among Yazd residents in 2014. Methods: This analytic and cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. The participants were all households of Yazd. The data were collected through a three-part questionnaire including demographic factors, socio-economic factors, and utilization of health services. The number of samples was estimated to be 1037 households selected by random stratified sampling. After administrating the questionnaire in the form of interview, data were entered into the SPSS software. Later, factor analysis method was carried out and participants were categorized based on their social and economical status. Afterwards, using the logistic regression method, the correlation among variables was calculated and finally, for measuring the concentration index, the stratified data were fed into Stata11 software version 12/SE and analyzed. Results: According to the findings, there was no meaningful inequality in the distribution of contagious and non-contagious decreases in the population under study. Inequality in utilization of services for inpatient and outpatients during the past 6 months in the five socio-economic groups was significant (P-value = 0.000). This shows that accumulation of visits occurred in richer groups of society. Also, it can be claimed that self-treatment has greater accumulation in the poorer quintiles (CI = -0.09). Conclusion: Inequality in benefitting from health services reflects the economical situation of households. As a result, it is expected that by taking steps to improve the living conditions, the equity in service utilization will be increased. http://jebhpme.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-26-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1Socio-Economic Inequality Benefit Health Care |
| spellingShingle | Najmeh Baghian Elham Tayefi Mohammad Ranjbar Adel Eftekhari Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics Socio-Economic Inequality Benefit Health Care |
| title | Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran |
| title_full | Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran |
| title_fullStr | Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran |
| title_full_unstemmed | Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran |
| title_short | Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Care Utilization: A Study of Service Utilization in Yazd, Iran |
| title_sort | socioeconomic inequality in health care utilization a study of service utilization in yazd iran |
| topic | Socio-Economic Inequality Benefit Health Care |
| url | http://jebhpme.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-26-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 |
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